From time to time, we the GMs and administrators will make important announcements in this thread. It is expected that all players will keep up to date on information posted here, so when you see a new post in this Announcement, be sure to check it out. It may very well have important information to you!

There has been a trend lately where new users have made mistakes in various things, and others have corrected them. This is all fine and good, as obviously people need to learn the right way to do things, however the manner in which it's being done could stand to change. Obviously, people should be respective to the new players, but more importantly, please correct them via a PM. The Sign-up Thread and others can get congested very quickly when two people are trying to correct someone who's made a mistake signing up. Sending a PM will let them know what they did wrong, without causing that clog.

It is appreciated when people help us, the GMs, by correcting mistakes. Don't think we're being ungrateful. We just want to try to keep some order here, and keep the Sign-up Thread for sign-ups, and so on down the line.

Some people have been making inquiry as to possible limitations of the usergroups. I won’t go into detail as to what the question was about, but I will offer this explanation. We can make them invisible, but we won’t. Your usergroup represents the people who you trust in your court, are active at your capital, and are well known. People who would not be communicating with you at your capital wouldn’t be in your usergroup unless they were making regular visits to you to discuss matters.

A note to those who would enter another ruler’s territory to assassinate guards or civilians: the palaces and the places at which soldiers stay are not without security, and there is absolutely no skill that allows members to attack and kill guards with impunity. If you take it upon yourself to enter another territory, as a free officer or otherwise, to molest their men or their property, there will always be a chance that you may be caught and put into a lethal duel or captured and turned over to that kingdom ruler. We will revoke portions of RP that detail the person leaving after this sort of action if they are captured.

Rulers will now be given moderator authorities over their own planning halls. You can access your moderator functions using a small link in the lower right hand corner of various sections of your halls, and you will now also be able to access the delete button for all posts in you planning hall forum.

I do need to point out one thing. Do not take this as an opportunity to plot against members of your forum by editing their posts or by changing their words in any way. Do not delete important posts, which might put a player into a bad position. Minor offenses will result in immediate termination of moderator rights (your planning hall will again go under administrator control). Any breach of these rules greater than that will result in immediate banning from the forum. This position is simply to allow you to keep your forums clean to present a better front to your men.

Anonymous (From Sho Gao’s Kingdom) wrote:What do you guys do to balance out the game against powerful rulers so the weak ones can do well in the game? How do you keep them under control so we can have a balanced China by the end of the game?

Absolutely nothing. We aren’t the Gray Witch from Lodoss War, we don’t step in to bring down powerful kingdoms and aid the weaker ones. The kingdom that manages itself best will have a clear advantage. Rulers who are talented and dedicated enough can also take down a nation full of PC officers using NPC officers. We don’t assign extra disasters to nations that are doing well, and we don’t give extra benefits to weaker ones.

As a mater of fact, at this time some of the nations dealing [well] with challenges are actually smaller ones who crossed certain NPCs.

A few times now, officers have posted 'announcements' in the forums of many rulers. I personally view this as similar to spam Email that no one wants to receive, but everyone gets anyway. From now on, anyone who makes posts like that will receive an automatic spam warning. Thank you for your time.

Rulers with announcements to make can use the Town Bulletin Board thread in the Audience Halls. Officers.. well, they should get their ruler to make the announcement there for them, if it's really important. If it's not, or they have no ruler, then they're out of luck and had better not spam.

This latest banning led Zulwarn to discover something I feel obliged to point out to other rulers.. you can check the IPs of your own officers in your Planning Hall, as the moderators there. If you fear someone may have a second account to use to spy on you, check their posts in the Planning Hall and inform GMs of any matches. You can disallow access to anyone who seems suspicious, obviously, at your own discretion.

Hmm… yeah, lots of announcements today. This is something Junts touched up on earlier, but I am going to elaborate on the request. When sending private messages to game masters, please never respond with “Thank you”, “I appreciate it”, “I’m sorry”, or anything else along those lines. It is not that we don’t want to hear such from you, but rather that our inboxes fill easily, and messages like that can cause previous messages to be deleted or our inbox to be filled.

Similarly, avoid multiple or trivial private messages to game masters. Gameplay questions go in the Game Rules forum. If you forgot to mention something, edit the message in your outbox, don’t send another message. That is all… for now.

Concerning Plots... There is something you must remember, and that is your location in the KT. In Most cases, you MUST be where you are as stated to be to do a plot in that general area. E.g you have to be in say Luo Yang, to attempt anything in the general vicinity of the city or outskirts of Luo Yang.

There are of course exceptions to this rule, and its different in each case. If you are not sure, you ask the GM who is running the plot for you whether the location matters or not. It it doesnt, thats good for you. But if its not, then too bad. The next person who thinks they can pull a fast one on us is going to be very very sorry.

Concerning Forum Behaviour. Forum behaviour is not expected to be absolutely perfect in the SimRTK, though a certain standard is expected from the members. Joking and playing around are permitted in the right forums and contexts, even encouraged, but there is a line that should not be crossed. This line is the point where the joking stops, and the flaming and trolling begin. Calling each other "Morons", "Baka" (Stupid), "Idiot" etc etc, is clearly Not Acceptable. Players now have been warned, and repeat of this kind of behaviour will result in offical warnings, or even bannings. This applies to all forums, even the planning halls.

Just a note, since it's come up a few times now: the Market is a no-plot zone. That means that your shops, the items and money within them are safe, and buyer's transactions are safe. You don't have to worry about safeguarding against thieves, bandits, or murderers. Buy in peace.

i'll feel bitter twice -- once for the journeyand once for missing you

Normally I wouldn't waste an Announcement for something like this, but it seems like several people who should know better don't, so..

When you're choosing your Campaign in a war, it should be included in your submitted tactics, not your public force post. They aren't meant to be publicly known, and by giving yours away for free you allow your opponents to tailor their tactics to take advantage.

A lot of people need to be reminded of this. Its common sense, and most of you know it already, but for those that don't...

Gold, item, supplies or any transactions of any sort between players, kingdoms or whatever needs to be noted down by either:

A) Placing such a transaction in a post, preferably RP posts. However, OOC posts would be accepted for those with little time, preferably in your PH OOC thread. Of course, transfers in Kingdom/IF Turns are most acceptable.

B) If its of a secretive nature, then it must be told to a GM. Not an RM, but a GM. If its something thats even more highly secretive, then tell it to an admin. We do keep records of transactions that are sent to us.

Why do we do this? To prevent cheating, of course. To point though is, any transaction that is not posted nor sent to the GM's will not be recognised.

A recent issue has come up, and because we've never made it explicitly clear in the rules, it's time to make it clear now.

When it comes to in-character interactions and discussion, the only acceptable place to roleplay is on the SimRTK forums themselves. This is especially true of crucial, decision making roleplay - anything that affects the game should be here, somewhere, on the forums. This means that any roleplay that takes place off-site is invalid and will not be recognized by the staff.

I understand that some of you have concerns about privacy and security of your planning halls and of the public roleplay forums. Nonetheless, you need to roleplay within the confines of the forum - either you choose to hold a private meeting in a planning hall, or via PM, or you hold it in a public forum and trust the fact that OOC information can't be gleaned by people IC unless they were there or had someone there pass it on. Sometimes, you will have to compromise security. The choice, depending upon the situation, is up to you, but it must find a way to take place on these forums.

Out of Character discussion is another matter; we are not going to prevent you from having OOC discussions via instant messengers or on other forums. Of course, we will only validate such information if it gets passed to us meaningfully (PM of an IM conversation confirmed by both parties, or a link to actual information on this forum).

I also want to make it clear that this has always been a solid rule here; it's just been one of those things where if you didn't ask, you didn't know. If you have any questions about the rule, and/or how it might apply in certain situations, feel free to PM me and ask.

i'll feel bitter twice -- once for the journeyand once for missing you